Sounds toooooo stupid for FATHER GEEK'S taste, but that doesn't mean that you won't find it entertaining. Remember the Three Stooges were pretty damn stupid! They managed to maintain a huge following for decades. Now, FATHER GEEK isn't saying this is equal to a Stooges flick. It could be worse, could be better, I only know what in ol' Gizmo's report. Proceed at your own risk...
Review of "Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween"
(warning, this review discusses some plot details and some of the film's gags)
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Tonight, there was a test screening of this film in Santa Monica in a small screening room. The Movie View people said that we were the first to see it, so I thought I'd share my thoughts. I've heard that the title had been changed to "Scary Movie," however, both the Movie View invitation and the film itself had the title "Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween," so I'll assume that's the title for now.
It's a spoof along the lines of the Zucker brothers movies, and while most of these movies have been misses lately, this one is funnier, but still falls short of its potential. While some of this similar parody films actually take the initiative to create a plot of their own, this one is a virtual scream for scream remake of "Scream."
The opening, as in Scream, features the death of a prominent actress... Carmen Electra. She's popping her popcorn when she gets a strange phone call. You know the rest... except she manages to strip to her undies and run through a sprinkler while trying to escape the bad guys... well, need I say more? Anyway, naturally, she gets it (but I don't want to ruin anymore).
The protagonist is a girl named Cindy (I don't know who the actress is, she isn't listed on IMDB or Coming Attractions), a sweet virginal girl who constantly fending off the affections of her bad boy boyfriend (a Freddie Prinze Jr. look-a-like) who has a habit of climbing through her bedroom window. Her father, a hilarious cameo by Rick Ducommun, is a drug dealer who is leaving town for a few days to escape the wrath of a drug cartel.
There's your usual group of friends... the slutty one (Shannon Elizabeth playing Buffy Gellar), her jock boyfriend (Lochlyn Munro, not as funny as he was in "Dead Man on Campus"), the gay jock who thinks he's straight (one of the Wayans), the gay jock's clueless girlfriend, and the stoner (the other Wayans brother).
They've been targeted by a killer because they ran over a pedestrian on a road last Halloween. Also along for the ride is an obnoxious reporter (Cheri Oteri), and Doofy, the often-drooling retarded Eagle Scout-cum-Junior Deputy. Rounding out the cast is Kurt Fuller as the oblivious Sheriff, and David Lander as Principal Squiggy.
The jokes are frequent, and most do hit their marks: obviously "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" are targets, but so are "The Sixth Sense," "The Usual Suspects," "American Pie," "Election," "Lord of the Dance" (why???) and "The Matrix" (which, while also spoofed in "Deuce Bigalow," is better done here). And if you thought "There's Something About Mary" had the ultimate penis and cum jokes, this one out does them both with two truly sick sequences that I won't dream of giving away.
While the gags are funny, the film itself could have been more original in structure (even right down to the final "whodunit" scene, it mirrors the original "Scream"). As a result, there's absolutely no suspense whatsoever, and we're reduced to laughing at the gags while we're counting down the minutes to the obvious solution.
In closing, it's one of the better parody films since the Zuckers retired Frank Drebin and the Airplane crew, but it's still missing their magic touch.
You'll laugh at the gags while you're watching, but there's little that will stick with you once you leave the theater.
I'll give it 2 1/2 machetes out of 4.
-- GIZMO THE GREMLIN
